Report shows employers added more jobs in January

An advertisement in the classified section of the Boston Herald newspaper calls attention to possible employment opportunities in Walpole, Mass. The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A private survey shows U.S. businesses increased hiring in January compared with a revised December reading.

Payroll
processor ADP said Wednesday that employers added 192,000 jobs in
January. That is more than December's revised number of 185,000, which
had initially been reported at 215,000.

The ADP report is derived
from actual payroll data and tracks total nonfarm private employment
each month. The increase in hiring occurred after Congress and the Obama
administration reached an agreement on Jan. 1 to avoid sharp tax
increases and across-the-board government spending cuts.

The ADP
report showed that most of the gains came from small businesses with 49
or fewer employers. This group of firms added 115,000 jobs in January.
Medium businesses, those with 50 to 499 employees, added 79,000 jobs
during the month while large businesses cut 2,000 employees.

In a
separate report Wednesday, the government said that the overall economy
shrank from October through December at an annual rate of 0.1 percent.
The weakness came from the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years,
fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles. The 0.1 percent
drop in the gross domestic product in the fourth quarter was a sharp
slowdown from 3.1 percent growth in the July-September period.